Complaining about Windows Vista is a national past time on Internet forums these days. Windows Vista 'costs too much', 'has onerous product activation', 'requires too much hardware', etc. These complaints are often followed up by a very simple boast: 'I'm just going to switch to Linux'. But in today's landscape, how viable is that statment? Is the threat to switch to Linux an empty one, or is it entirely possible?"

"I never said it was impossible, just said people talk a big game about dumping windows then never do."

That's correct as far as I experienced. Ut seems to be because of all these little problems, such as a serial mouse not working, a video card not supported or no idea how to install a scanner driver.

As it has been mentioned before, the myth of "But I need it!" is one of the main reasons. Most people treat their PC as a better typewriter, some use it as a gaming console. They simply do not know about alternatives, they don't care about security (their own and the one of others) and they expect everything to work by itself.

Most people (at least here in Germany) use pirated software, famous programs they get from their neighbors, coworkers, friends. This software is the reason they use "Windows", it's not the OS itself they're interested in.

So I could say about Linux (as it has been said about MacOS X): The underlying OS is nearly irrelevant as long as there's a GUI and all the functionalities (not "all the particular programs"!) available. And regarding Linux, it is, that's a fact.

I've installed SuSE Linux (one year ago) on my father's laptop. Until now, he even does not know he's not running "Windows", and he hasn't had any problem using the machine. To add a personal line, I didn't own and use any MICROS~1 product for all my life. Maybe I'm a bit old fashioned. :-)